


Thou art is my inspiration

by livinglittlelie



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Museum Date, The louvre is way bigger than you guys know, but all roads lead to Mona Lisa, for ladyofacat, just a lil' cute thing, mlsecretsanta 2k17, which didn't start as a date but led to a date so it works
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-23 06:37:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13184424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livinglittlelie/pseuds/livinglittlelie
Summary: Those who said that museums were boring? Well, they weren't doing it right.





	Thou art is my inspiration

Marinette fidgeted in her seat, unable to stay still. She started tapping on her sketchbook nervously, half-listening to what Mme Bustier was telling them. Alya, sitting beside her, elbowed her, trying to make her stop, and Marinette shot her a glance, biting her lip. ‘Stop it!’, Alya’s glare clearly said. However, Marinette couldn’t bring herself to follow her command. 

Giving up on actually trying to listen, she looked around the room. Her gaze immediately landed on the high glass pyramid on top of their heads. She looked at the drifting clouds up in the sky, sighing. Okay, she felt a bit calmer.

Marinette’s class was in a school trip to the Louvre. They were waiting just outside the museum, as Mme Bullier told them their assignments of the day, something Marinette was clearly not listening to. She hoped Alya had paid attention, unlike her.

Suddenly, everyone started getting up, and Marinette looked around, startled. Alya grabbed her by the hand and tugged her up, too. Marinette followed her, managing to just stumble a bit before getting up. The class made their way to the entrance of the museum, and Mme Bustier nodded at them with a practiced smile. 

“Well, kids. As we have said before, you have to return to our meeting point at 12. Make sure you finish your assignments in time, and, of course, make sure you behave. Did I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Mme Bustier,” all students answered in a chorus.

Mme Bustier nodded. “Well, then. Have fun in the museum!”

Everyone started going inside. Marinette stuck close to Alya, who regarded her with a tint of amusement. When they were out of Mme Bustier’s sight, Alya turned around, notebook in hand.

“Okay, what we need to do is analyze one of the paintings in the Louvre. We have to go to the different sections and try to find it, and when we do, we have to describe the piece. You got ‘ Louis XIV’. Pretty easy, if I say so myself.”

Marinette threw her arms around her best friend. “Thank you very much, Alya! I don’t know what I would do without you.” She leaned away a bit. “Which one did you get?” 

Alya scoffed. “Something called ‘ Self-Portrait or Portrait of the Artist Holding a Thistle.’”

“What’s that?”

She grabbed her phone and showed it to Marinette. Marinette blinked at the portrait. An ugly-looking blond man wearing a weird red beret was staring back at her. For some reason, he was holding some plants in his hand. 

“It’s… nice?”

Alya rolled her eyes. “Yeah,  _ sure _ ,” she said sarcastically. “Anyway, we’ve got a lot of time to waste in here, so why don’t you take this chance to… you know,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows, “ _ mingle?” _

“To what?” She frowned.

“Mingle. Talk to a certain someone.” Alya threw an arm around her shoulders and pointed subtly with a wicked grin to no other than Adrien Agreste, who was talking with Nino animatedly. “Maybe you’ll get the chance to talk to him, to get to know him better.”

Marinette gaped at the other girl incredulously.

“Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no. Not at all. Nuh huh.” Marinette shook her head violently as she shrugged her arm off. “I can’t. No way. I am Not Prepared. I don’t have a plan, and you know I can’t talk to him without a plan. Sorry, but no.”

Alya looked back at her, trying her best not to burst out laughing. Her shoulders shook, and and she was biting her lip tightly to keep herself silent. She shook her head, amused. 

“Oh, god, Marinette, you’re sometimes too much.” She put her notebook away and adjusted her bag on her shoulder. “Well, I’m leaving. This…  _ masterpiece _ is pretty far inside, and I want to finish this as fast as possible. So, see you around?”

“Sure.”

Marinette waved at the retreating girl and looked down at the map the museum had provided them. She tried to make sense of all the rooms without much success. Giving up, she started making her way through the different rooms, trying to spot the painting. She had a vague idea of what it was supposed to look like, so she would try to spot it.

After twenty minutes of roaming aimlessly and passing by the Mona Lisa twice, Marinette finally found the painting she was looking for,  ‘ Louis XIV’. She approached the painting, sketchbook in hand, ready to finish with her assignment as fast as possible. She just needed to analyze it and she was done, right?

But, she thought, after staring at the painting for a while, what was there to analyze? It was just a rather pompous portrait of the king, who held a cane for some reason, and his hair could rival the mane of a lion. And why was he holding his skirt up, as if he was a can can dancer? And he had a sword sheathed underneath them, apparently? The only thing that made sense in that picture was the crown, and it was resting on the bench beside the king, almost out of view. He even wore red heels, which clashed with his navy blue skirts.

Shaking off her sarcastic thoughts, Marinette started describing the picture in her notebook, trying with all her might not to let her scepticism show. When she had finished describing the evident, and was looking for details that would make her score higher, she heard soft snickering nearby. She ignored it at first, but when the snickering kept going, she turned around trying to find the source.

What she didn’t expect to see was a very familiar blonde mop standing nearby. Her heart skipped a beat, as usual, and she had to consciously make sure she didn’t drop her sketchbook to the floor. He hadn’t seen her yet, something she was grateful for, so she still had some time to try to calm her nerves. She breathed in and held her breath, then calmly breathed out. Okay, she was feeling better.

Marinette stood there, pondering what to do. Alya’s words immediately crossed her mind, and instead of immediately dismissing them, as she would have some months ago, she actually considered follow her advice. After all, Alya was right. This was a really good opportunity to get to know the other boy, something she had been dying to do for a while. 

So, squaring her shoulders, Marinette made her way to Adrien, not letting her nerves deter her. Just as she was about to stand beside him, Adrien chuckled again, and Marinette cocked her head in curiosity.

“Hey, Adrien.”

The boy turned to the side in surprise, then smiled when he saw it was her. “Ah, Marinette! I didn’t see you here.”

She pointed back to the painting assigned to her. “I have to describe that painting over there. What about you?”

“Oh, I have to describe this one.” He turned to look at the painting in front of him, and Marinette read the tag. ‘The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds’. She had never seen it before. “I’ve been trying to do it for a while now, but…”

“What? What’s wrong?”

He looked back at her and scratched the back of his head, suddenly aloof. “It’s just… every time I look at the picture, I can’t help it but wonder what they’re saying to each other, and I don’t know why, but I find it hilarious. It’s stupid.”

Marinette smiled to herself. That was so endearing, in a dorky way. “Which kind of stories do you think up?”

“Let’s see. Take this painting, for example. They’re playing cards, right? And the woman in the center of the picture is giving the person to the left the side eye. So I can’t help but imagine her saying something along the lines of ‘stop giving me that look, I know you’re cheating, Mathilda. I’ve seen six aces on your hands already. I swear to god, if I see another ace in your hand, I’ll have you beheaded.’”

Marinette blinked at the boy, astonished, then burst out laughing. Remembering they were in a museum, she immediately covered her mouth with a hand, but she couldn’t stop her giggles. Adrien looked back at her with a proud smirk, clearly pleased that he got that reaction from her. 

Once she got her giggles at bay, Marinette asked, “but how do you know that’s a woman? That looks like a man to me.”

Adrien looked back to the painting, getting closer to the character to the left, getting a better look at the picture. Then, he grinned at Marinette and cleared his voice theatrically.

“Oh my god, Mathilda!” he said with a high-pitched voice. “I can’t believe your name is not Mathilda but Matthiew! You have been fooling us all along with your feminine clothes and long hair, and you have the nerve to cheat on our game!? That’s preposterous! Off with his head!”

Marinette snorted at his silliness. Deciding to go along, she cleared her throat and started speaking with an exaggerated nasal voice. “But madame, it was you the one who decided to invite this treacherous man to our weekly poker game. Why did you even invite him, if you don’t know him at all?”

“Don’t make me order your execution too, Emma. You have no right to question my stupid decisions. Manon, more wine! I need to be drunk to deal with these two.”

Adrien and Marinette looked at each other and burst out laughing. They got dirty looks from the people around them, but they couldn’t care less. Drying some stray tears with her fingertips, Marinette giggled as she looked at the painting.

“That was really funny.”

“I know, right?” He grinned at her. “That’s why I haven’t been able to concentrate to do my assignment. I can’t take this story away from my head. I might as well give up completely.”

She eyed his notebook. “How long until you finish?”

“It shouldn’t take long. Mostly polishing some sentences and adding some details. What about you?”

“Mostly the same. I couldn’t bring myself to look at the painting anymore.”

“Too boring?” 

“Too ridiculous.”

He grinned. “Ah, I know that feeling quite well.”

Marinette looked at him from the corned of her eye, nibbling at her lip. That was her chance.

“So… if you’re almost finished and you don’t have anything else to do… do you want to go around the Louvre? With me?”

He turned to look at her, and his smile was so bright that almost blinded her. “I’d love that! We’re making up more stories of the paintings, right?”

Marinette nodded, giggling. “Of course!”

Adrien looked around, pondering their options. “Maybe we can start going… that way?” he said, pointing to one of the exits. 

“Sure.”

Marinette followed Adrien to the next room. Some tourists were looking at the paintings, but the room was mostly empty. They looked around, trying to find their next target to their improvised game, when Adrien grabbed her by her hand and tugged her to one of the paintings. Marinette tried very hard to keep herself from exploding.

Adrien suddenly stopped in front of one of the paintings, and Marinette almost ran into him. He let go of her hand, sadly, and Marinette missed its warmth instantly. She looked up at the little picture and read the nametag. Woman with a mirror. Huh, really imaginative.  

Adrien looked at her expectantly. “So?”

“It’s perfect!” She grinned. “Should I start?”

“Yeah, please.”

“Okay, here I go.” Marinette took a deep breath and tried to do her best imitation of Chloé’s voice, exaggerating her nasal, snobbish tone. “Oh. My. God. Jean Pierre, look at my  _ hair? _ What is this monstrosity? I asked you for a soft perm.  _ Soft perm.  _ But my hair looks like a bloody scourer! What is the meaning of this!?”

Adrien snickered against his hand. Then, he straightened up and spoke with the same snobbish voice. “No, Jean Claude, don’t try to fix it. Don’t even  _ touch my hair _ . You see this hair? It’s worth more than your life, Jean Antoine. So why don’t you- Stop it with the mirror, already! It doesn’t look better! I can’t even see my face on it, it’s so dirty! Do you even clean this place, Jean Jacques!?”

Marinette laughed at him. She was surprised by how relaxed she actually felt around him. It seemed that this dorky side of him actually managed to calm her jumpiness. There was also that sense of familiarity that Marinette couldn’t shake off… as if she had seen something like this before. But no matter how much she racked her mind, she came up empty-handed. Oh well, it was probably not important.

Shaking those thoughts aside, Marinette bumped her shoulder with his. “Hey, you’re really good at snob!” 

“I’ve grown up with Chloé. At this point, I’ve got the snobby voice mastered. I got the name changing from her, too.”

“Of course.” She took his hand without thinking. “Let’s go look for another one!”

They wandered off again, stopping in different paintings and statues and making fun of them. Every time their story was more ridiculous than the ones before, and they had to stop themselves from guffawing in the quiet rooms. They let themselves laugh out loud in the rooms with more tourists crowding them. 

They even met with some of their classmates in their way, and almost got in trouble when they approached Alix from behind, who was busy studying the painting ‘La Grande odalisque’ and mumbled in her ear, “paint me like one of your french girls, Jack.” That made her snort so loud that actually got them being scolded by one of the guards. 

Adrien and Marinette finally got to the room where ‘The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon and the Coronation of Empress Joséphine on December 2, 1804’ was. They both stared at the immense painting, taking in every single detail of the scene in front of them.

Adrien spoke first. “Tag yourself; I’m th e woman in the central stalls that looks like she’s trying to blink but failed.” He cocked his head, deep in thought. “Or maybe she’s trying to hold in a yawn, I’m not sure.”

Marinette let her eyes roam around the painting, trying to find anyone else that looked ridiculous. “I’m the altar boy at the back that looks like he’s about to fall asleep- oh my god. Is that Frollo?”

“Who? The character from the Hunchback of Notre-Dame?”

“Yeah.”

“Where?”

She pointed at the picture. “There, just behind Napoleon. Can you see him?”

“Oh, my god. I do! What is he doing here?” 

Marinette shrugged. “He got lost in his way back from molesting Esmeralda?”

“He was about to practice his Hellfire solo but Napoleon got inside his church?”

“Quasimodo got lost in the crowd and he’s looking for him, but he found a tiny man with airs of grandeur instead?”

“Maybe it was-”

Whatever Adrien was about to say was interrupted by a shrill sound. Both of them were startled by it, and Adrien quickly took out his phone, switching off his alarm. He winced apologetically.

“It’s time we go back to the meeting point.”

“Yeah,” she said, trying to mask her disappointment. However, she wasn’t successful, and Adrien placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry. We can come to the Louvre another day, or we can visit any other museum together. I’ve heard that Centre Pompidou has really weird collections.” He smiled kindly at her. “How does that sound?”

She nodded at him. “That’s really cool! I mean- that would be nice. When are you free?”

He hummed. “I think I’ll manage to have some free time on Thursday after class. Is that okay?”

“It’s perfect! I’m totally free.”

“Okay, on Thursday, then. It’s a date, then.” He winked at her.

He started walking towards the exit, unaware of the state of brain meltdown Marinette was at that instant. A date. Adrien had said a date. A date between two people. A date between friends or a  _ date _ date? Should she start panicking? Who was she kidding, she was already panicking. Why was she back to nerve-wreck Marinette? Where was the Marinette joking around with Adrien some minutes ago? Where did she go!?

Adrien chose to turn then, and shot her a disarming smile. Okay, who gave him the right to look so good? That smile should be illegal.

“Should we go, Marinette?”

“Yes! Of course! Absolutely!”

Adrien smiled at her, fond, and Marinette actually relaxed a bit. Shaking off her lingering awkwardness, she went to join him, and both made their way to the exit. Marinette was sad that this improvised hangout was already over, but oh well, she had Thursday to look forward to, didn’t she?

**Author's Note:**

> Don’t use this fic as a guide around the Louvre, as the author has made up where each of the paintings are. (All but the Mona Lisa. I always end up there somehow, skipping 90% of the museum. People who say it’s very difficult to find, come to me.)  
> Also, you don’t know how big Napoleon’s painting is. It’s as big as his ego, Is2g.  
> PS: the Centre Pompidou holds Modern Art expositions and they’re… odd, to say the least. I was actually visiting it when I got the idea for this fic, but I considered the expositions being too weird for a school trip.  
> (There's a huge sculpture which I call "How to Friendzone", and a painting painted with naked girl bodies, so...)


End file.
